


Lessons in Legends

by durinsprinces



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: FiKi Week, LMAO, M/M, Stone Giants, a little snippet from their childhood, followed by the stone giants scene, who knew, wow i can write gen too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-27
Updated: 2015-05-27
Packaged: 2018-04-01 12:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4019758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/durinsprinces/pseuds/durinsprinces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fíli can remember the lesson so clearly, but it does him absolutely no good when he's face to face with the legend itself. Had he known Stone Giants were truly real, he might have considered using a little more caution as the Company scales the mountain in a thunderstorm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons in Legends

**Author's Note:**

> For FiKi Week.   
> Day Three: Stone Giants (late lmao)
> 
> I actually started on this early enough but some people came over and just had to distract me.   
> The struggle is real. 
> 
> [my tumblr](http://durinsprinces.tumblr.com/)  
> [askbox](http://durinsprinces.tumblr.com/ask)   
> [day 2](http://durinsprinces.tumblr.com/post/119914591757/everything-fiki-week-day-2-pairing-fili-kili)

The lesson is as boring as any, but Fíli does his best to try and keep his mind on what Balin is teaching them. Ori is a few chairs over in the library, taking notes faster than Fíli could even begin to try and do. He really wants to pay attention to Balin, but his dry voice droning on and on does nothing to help his focus.

_It’s such a nice day out,_ Fíli laments. A day he would rather spend in the training grounds practicing his swordplay, than in the stuffy library learning how to properly structure Khuzdul sentences. Well, at least it’s not a lesson on trade policies. The last time he and Kíli had endured one of those, Fíli went home with a stern talking to. Fortunately he hadn’t misbehaved quite like his little brother. Kíli had to limp through the halls with a rather sore bottom.

But this lesson was getting duller by the minute, and each time his eyes try to flutter shut, Fíli has to pinch himself to stay awake. So instead, he decides to search the book in front of him, feeling this is a better option than taking a nap.

While skimming through the text, Fíli finds the page many chapters ahead of where they are; a large, exciting picture surrounded by Khuzdul. Some words he can read, some he can’t. Perhaps if he were paying more attention to _this_ lesson, he might be able to read some more of the ancient language.

But he is not listening now, not with the fascinating picture calling out to him.  

Fíli glances up at Balin before looking over at his brother. He would absolutely love what Fíli has found, so he can’t just keep it to himself. “Kee,” he whispers, quiet as a mouse as he scooches closer to his brother. He puts his finger on the page, pointing to the dark picture as he looks over at him. Kíli’s quill comes to a stop at the sound of his name, ceasing the scribbling of little doodles all over his sheet of parchment he will surely be punished for later.  

“Look, Kee,” Fíli keeps his voice low, trying not to draw any attention to them.

Kíli turns away from his notes, setting his quill in the tiny pot of ink before his eyes follow Fíli’s hand to the picture his brother is pointing at.

“What is _that?”_ Kíli whispers back, curiosity in his eyes as he scans the page.

“The book says it’s some kinda _giant_ ,” Fíli wrinkles his nose at the word. Kíli glances up at him and then back down to the picture. Fíli finds his attention divided between the information in the volume and watching his brother’s face staring raptly at the image.

“Like a _troll_ kinda giant?” Kíli asks in excitement, before putting his little hands on the book and pulling it closer to him. Fíli lets his brother have it, wincing a little when he noticed the small smudgy prints from Kíli’s inky fingers.

“No, I don’t think so,” Fíli shakes his head, moving his chair slowly and quietly over so he can sit right next to his brother and share the book with him. His eyes scan over the words trying to find the ones he knows. “There,” Fíli points to a few runes.

Kíli squints his eyes and scrunches up his little nose, and Fíli can’t help but smile at how cute his little brother can be sometimes. “What’s it say?”

“Kee, this is one of the words you should really know,” Fíli scolds gently. He doesn’t really care that his brother doesn’t know the word. Kíli knows far more words at his age than Fíli did. He leans down so he can whisper in Kíli’s ear when he sees he has the attention of Ori. They’re clearly making enough noise to distract him from his lesson, but Balin seems to have not noticed them yet, so Fíli chances it. “It says stone.”

“Stone? You mean they’re giants made out of **_stone_**?!” Kíli gasps loudly, drawing the attention of Balin over to them. Fíli shuts his eyes, takes a deep breath and shakes his head. At least when he opens them and sees Kíli’s face, he looks properly ashamed of himself.

He slowly looks up at Balin, who is walking over to them. He looks irritated, but not angry at all. Perhaps the good weather has their teacher in a good mood.

Kíli ducks his head a little, his shoulders drawing upwards as he tries to make himself look as small and unimposing as possible.

Fíli holds his high, unwilling to feel ashamed for finding something more fascinating than an ancient language that hardly anyone _even uses_.

 “And what have you found that’s more important than our lesson?” Balin asks as he steps in front of their table. His hands are clasped behind his back, no doubt holding the place of the book he was reading from. Somehow it makes him more intimidating than it honestly should.

Kíli refuses to look up at him, and Fíli notices his hands are trying to hide the picture that had gotten them in trouble. Fíli pulls the book out from under them and lifts it up to show Balin. “What is this?” he asks, hoping the straightforward question will make him forget his irritation.

“Hmm?” Balin leans forward to take a look at what Fíli is showing them and then his eyes light up. “That’s a Stone Giant, laddie!” he tells them in his own excitement and Fíli can’t help but grin. So he and Kíli were right to be excited about such an intriguing thing!

“What is that?” he asks to keep the dwarf talking. He clearly doesn’t have to because Balin pulls up a chair and sits down at the table with them before dragging the book over to himself.

“Ori, come a bit closer,” Balin waves him over and Fíli glances over at Kíli with a small smile, watching his brother visibly unfold in his relief. Ori scrambles over with a fresh piece of parchment, his quill ready to take notes even if this isn’t part of today’s lesson.

Balin’s eyes crinkle when he starts his tale. “Stone Giants are said to live in the Misty Mountains, coming alive during exceptionally large thunderstorms.  They hurl massive stones in battle or perhaps game, no one is quite sure.”

“They throw stones at each other?” Ori asks before Kíli can, scratching something down on his paper.

“Aye. Or perhaps at the ground below,” Balin smiles softly at Ori; one he saves specifically for the shy dwarfling. It is no secret that Ori is his favorite student. He is definitely the most intelligent between the three of them in this room. Fíli thinks he will make a fine scribe someday, if he wishes.

“Why would they do that?” Kíli frowns at the thought of the titanic creatures hurtling rocks at the ground for sport. “That seems like a waste of time.” Fíli can’t help but grin at his little brother’s judgement.   
  
“Perhaps they like the sound of the rocks shattering in the forest,” Balin chuckles when Kíli frowns at this, before his face relaxes and he shrugs. Fíli holds back a laugh of his own.

He wishes to hear the end of the tale. And it would do him no good to offend his little brother right now.

Balin continues the lesson when he’s sure Kíli isn’t going to chime in with an opinion over how Stone Giants may or may not spend their time. “They are often called Thunder Battles in text, and they are said to be so loud that one can hear the sound of it from several miles away.”

“How big are they?” Kíli quickly interrupts before he can stop himself, flushing a little when Balin fixes him with a reprimanding look.

“It varies from text to text. Some books say they are only three meters high, while others have described them to be as tall as the Misty Mountains themselves,” Balin tells them. Kíli’s eyes widen at the thought of Giants as large as a mountain.  

“Why would there be a difference in their height in all the tales?” Ori pipes up as he dips his quill in Kíli’s ink pot. Kíli scowls at the quill and the dwarfling’s hand.

Fíli puts his hand on his brother’s knee and giving him a tiny disapproving shake of his head to keep him from trying to claim ownership over such a small thing. He can already hear his brother’s voice shouting “ _that’s mine!”_ in his head Kíli looks like he might argue, but to Fíli’s relief, he only turns back to Balin to listen.

“Well, you have your answer right there!” Balin states with another soft chuckle, watching three sets of eyebrows draw up in confusion.

“What does that mean?” both Kíli and Ori ask in unison.

Fíli thinks it over for a moment before then realization dawns on him. “Because they’re _tales_ ,” Fíli replies to the other dwarflings’ question.

“That would be exactly right, Fíli!” Balin praises and Fíli can’t help but smile. He grins through the pain when Kíli kicks him under the table. “No one living has truly seen one, it is said. They are old tales told by weary travelers, and just that exactly.”

“But could they be real?” Kíli questions the dwarf.

“Aye, it’s possible,” Balin answers after a moment of thought. “But until I have seen one with my own eyes, I think it best we not dwell on it for too long. Now proper structure of a sentence in Khuzdul is very important.”

Both Fíli and Kíli groan while Ori’s eyes light up. Balin gives them a wink as he stands up, pushing the chair back to the table he pulled it from.

“Fee, do you think any Stone Giants live here?” Kíli asks his brother after a moment.

“I doubt it,” Fíli shrugs, but he slings his arm over his brother’s shoulders just the same. “And if they do, I will always protect you from them, Kee.”

Kíli beams up at Fíli before bumping a shoulder against his ribs. “Not if I protect you from them first.”

\- - - - - -

  
“The legends are true! Giants. Stone giants!”

Only seconds ago, Kíli had been right behind him. Their boots had been touching as they rocked back and forth, trying to gain traction and balance while the stones continued to shift and move around them.

Fíli slides his foot backwards, his boot meeting nothing. His shoulders press back and when he meets air instead of a solid body, he realizes Kíli is gone. His eyes are not deceiving him. His brother is gone.

Fíli watches Kíli being ripped away from him, separated by splitting stone. He can hardly help it when his mind flashes to a lesson so long ago he had forgotten he and Kíli had even had it. He had never believed the tales and now, his own folly was being shoved in his face as he strains to grab his brother’s hand.

 It’s too late. The stone tears them apart as his words ring uselessly in his ears. He can hardly hear the sound of his voice over the deafening booms and claps of both the storm and the giants battling around them. He calls his brother’s name once more, but even he knows that won’t do anything to help him.

Neither one of them could protect each other. They had both failed.

Perhaps if he would have paid more attention instead of gaped at the Giants before them, he would have thought to grab his brother’s hand _before_ they were being torn away from each other.

But they were so huge and so loud and so very, very much _real_.

The next few moments go by in a blur, but also mercilessly slow. It’s as if his mind has slowed down while everything around him has sped up.

He wants nothing more than to make sure Kíli is alright and see him, hold him, protect him, but the only way he can do that is if he lives through this first. He kicks himself for losing his head and proceeds to take cover when stones begin to crash around him. Seconds too late and he would be dead.

He rides out the trembles and quakes of the mountain beneath his feet and presses himself close to the stone wall behind him. He readies himself for the impact as the side he is stuck on begins to collide with the sharp and jagged walls of the mountain on the other side.

He thinks for the slowest second of his life that perhaps this might be it, this might be where his journey ends. And the only thing that really upsets him about that is that he will never know if Kíli is okay or not.

How they had remained unharmed, Fíli would never truly remember with his mind shouting Kíli’s name so loudly he wonders perhaps if he actually screamed it out loud. But he is fortunate this time and the second he hears his Uncle’s voice calling out for his brother, panic sets in. Had Kíli been hurt? Thorin should have been watching him. If Kíli is hurt, Fíli will find it hard to forgive his uncle, and most of all, he doesn’t believe he will truly ever be able to forgive himself.

He has been so naïve.  

Fíli groans as he lifts his head from the bundle of the Company he is lying on. At least he had ended up on top of Bombur and not below him. It is hardly a comfort and not at all the one he is seeking, now that he is back on the right side of the mountain, mostly unscathed.

When Thorin rounds the corner, Fíli sees him looking down at him in confusion and then relief. Some of his anxiety washes out with the rain. His uncle had just mixed up their names, as he was known to do from time to time. Kíli was surely okay. He would not believe it, though, until he saw with his own eyes.

The sight of his brother rounding the corner with the rest of the company, no worse for wear than he should be after a Thunder Battle, lifts the entire weight of the world off of Fíli’s shoulders.

He wants to rush to him, but Bilbo is falling off the side of the mountain and now that he knows Kíli is alright, this is a far more pressing matter at the moment.

Especially once his uncle nearly falls to his own death. Fíli’s blood runs colder, though he had thought it to be impossible. It had felt like ice from the wind and the rain and the thoughts of losing Kíli.

He really doesn’t think he can take another moment more of this, but he lets his concerns go unvoiced once Dwalin hauls Thorin back to safety.

Fíli ignores the cruel words his uncle spits at Bilbo, though he hardly thinks it’s appropriate or even warranted. He decides to have a word with him later, once everyone has calmed down from the frightening experience.

Once in the shelter of the cave, Fíli can finally, _finally_ speak to his brother.

Hands wrap in his wet tunic as Kíli embraces him before Fíli can even get a word out. His brother clings to him and it’s almost painful, but Fíli has no right to say so because his own fingers must be bruising his brother’s back.

He thinks some of the Company glances their way, but he honestly could care less right now.

He almost lost his brother. He almost lost his One.

“Kee,” Fíli breathes him in. Underneath the wind and rain Fíli can smell on his brother, there’s also the smell of firewood and pipe tobacco and the scent that distinctly belongs solely to Kíli. He feels at home now, here in his arms. “I am so sorry,” Fíli whispers into his ear.

Kíli shakes and Fíli wonders if it’s from anxiety or if he’s crying. He’s sure it’s both.

“Shh, nadadith, I’m here,” Fíli tries to comfort him and he slowly loosens his hold on his brother’s back.

Kíli lets out a pitiful noise and presses even closer to him when he thinks his brother might pull away. Fíli has no intentions of letting go right this second, so he hushes him and starts to rub small, comforting circles over his shoulders.

“I thought…” Kíli croaks out and Fíli shakes his head where it’s buried in the crook of his brother’s shoulders.

“It’s okay, Kee. We’re both here. We’re both alive,” Fíli reassures him, repeating the words over and over until they both start to believe them. Kíli’s fingers finally fall from Fíli’s tunic and he slumps against his brother’s hold.

“Why don’t we lay out our bed rolls, okay?” One step at a time. It’s the best way to calm Kíli down when he’s scared.

Fíli doesn’t know how he’s holding it all together when he can still feel his heart hammering in his chest. He thinks it might just explode with how terrified he is at the thought of losing Kíli.

“Okay,” Kíli replies with a tiny nod.

They begin to go through their nightly routine, throwing out their bed rolls and pulling off their heavier weapons. When they lie down on the cold, hard stone, their hands seek each other’s out, fingers linking together. It’s safe and hidden from view and Fíli lets out a heavy sigh, feeling the anxiety begin to slowly ebb away.

“I love you, Fee,” Kíli whispers in the dark, and Fíli closes the remaining distance between them. He doesn’t want to ever be separated again, even here in the relative security of the cave.

“I love you too, nadadith,” Fíli turns his head to place a soft, but too short kiss to his cheek. He fills it with as much love as he can, but it still leaves them both begging for more. Fíli vows to himself that the next chance he gets, the next time they are alone, he will truly show his brother how much he loves him.

“I’m so sorry,” Fíli repeats his apology when he is sure everyone is asleep. He still can’t get over his own stupidity and it’s keeping him awake while the sound of snores around him remind him that he should be getting some rest. But he knows his brother is awake too and he feels it deep in his bones to make sure Kíli knows how truly sorry he is. He can never let this happen again.

He’s all too aware now of just how dangerous this quest really is, and how lightly he had been taking it before tonight. If he had simply just listened and heeded to his uncle’s warnings…

“Me too,” Kíli admits after a heavy pause. Fíli idly wonders if Kíli can remember the lesson about the Stone Giants; if he can remember the promise he had made to protect Fíli from them. If he can remember the vow they had made together that day to protect one another. Maybe he does, because his voice sounds laden with remorse. “I’m sorry too.”

But the words sound so wrong to Fíli’s ears. It’s his fault. He knows Kíli will tell him it is both of their faults for being so foolish, but he’s not yet done kicking himself for his failure. It was his fault they were separated. He may not have been able to protect him from something so unavoidable, but he should have at least tried.

Fíli thinks he may argue with his brother. But one glance at Kíli’s face has him closing his mouth, and he decides to let it drop for the moment. It would do him no good to offend his brother right now.


End file.
